Space Shuttle Loss

I'm sure by now you have all heard of the loss of the lives of the seven astronauts onboard the shuttle Columbia, it strikes more at home for me because I am an American, but it is a loss for everyone, I would just like to say how sorry I am for the family's of those who were lost

Woke up to this news this morning, its a terrible tragedy. Unfortunately NASA at this time isn't able to give the public any information on what caused it. They are mentioning some debris hitting the left wing at some point I believe but say that that is not uncommon. I'm sure you can get a more complete update at your favorite online news source or on the tv.

Originally posted by Nick i heard that there was too much pressure in the landing tire causing it to explode causing the shuttle to blow up...

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Entirely too early to asses blame. The info you have is partially correct, as it stands there are plenty of things to investigate, including the odd sensor readings in the left wing, along with the piece of foam that came loose and hit the wing on take-off, and possible rotation during re-entry.

Landing gear? Tire pressure? What are you talkin about? The landing gear wouldn't have been out since it did not crash, nor was it landing. The shuttle caught fire and exploded...

Personally, I think that a cover-up will be uncovered here in the near future. During take-off some piece of the huge gas cylinders fell off and hit part of the left wing, which most likely damaged at least the heat shield tiles on it. A spokesman for NASA said that they saw this, concluded that nothing major had happened, and that if something major had happened they couldn't have done anything to fix it. :rolleyes: There are people on the space station right now, meaning there is an extra shuttle up there right now. They should have switched shuttles and used something on earth or something up in space to decide what possible problems there were with that shuttle.

The year is 2003, 34 years after we 'suspectedly' landed on the moon. This is no freak accident, someone somewhere knew that this was a possibility.

Yes, but this time there was enough damage to make the shuttle explode.

Are you sure there is no extra shuttle up there? If there is not, NASA has way too much confidence in this space station, and if I was an astronaut about to be launched into space to live on the station, I would demand a way out like a shuttle being there.

Originally posted by PHATMAN5050 Yes, but this time there was enough damage to make the shuttle explode.

Are you sure there is no extra shuttle up there? If there is not, NASA has way too much confidence in this space station, and if I was an astronaut about to be launched into space to live on the station, I would demand a way out like a shuttle being there.

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PHATMAN, there is no shuttle up there.

I happen to know several people who have gone up on space shuttle missions, and I am finding your lack of knowledge combined with odd accusations insulting, and hurtfull. Although I do not know anyone personally on that mission, I have friends that just lost friends.

You are in no position to declare what NASA does or does not have confidence in, and I would appreciate it if you kept your opinions to things you have knowledge of.

The problem is that the ISS is slowly falling back to earth but when a shuttle docks with it, it pushes it back up. It took almost 3 years from the Challenger before the shuttles were flying again. NASA might be under some pressure this time to hurry up to find an answer...

I believe its not just public pressure but also pressure from within NASA to get the next shuttle back up there as soon as possible. NASA and other agencies have been toying with the idea of different vechiles to get people up into space but I suspect that now there will be much more pressure from the public.

The Space Shuttle Columbia and its seven astronauts were lost today when the vehicle broke up over north central Texas during its reentry from orbit.

Communications were lost with Columbia and its crew at around 8:00 a.m. CST, while the shuttle was traveling about 18 times the speed of sound at an altitude of 207,000 feet. Columbia was 16 minutes from landing at the Kennedy Space Center when flight controllers at Mission Control lost contact with the vehicle. Columbia was returning from a 16-day scientific research mission, its 28th flight, which launched on January 16.

Aboard Columbia were Commander Rick Husband, completing his second flight, Pilot William McCool, wrapping up his first mission, Mission Specialists Dave Brown, also completing his first mission, Kalpana Chawla, on her second flight, Laurel Clark, a first-time space traveler, Payload Commander Mike Anderson, ending his second flight, and Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon of the Israel Space Agency, on his first flight.

Prior to the loss of communications with Columbia, the shuttle’s return to Earth appeared perfectly normal. After assessing some wispy fog near the shuttle’s three-mile long landing strip at KSC before dawn, Entry Flight Director Leroy Cain gave approval for the firing of the shuttle’s braking rockets to begin its descent from orbit.

Husband and McCool began the deorbit burn to allow Columbia to slip out of orbit at 7:15 a.m. CST. There was no indication of anything abnormal with Columbia’s reentry until the last communications between Mission Control and the crew.

At Columbia’s intended landing site, NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe and Associate Administrator for Space Flight William Readdy met with the families of the astronauts to offer their condolences, vowed to uncover the cause of the accident and press ahead with the Shuttle program.

“This is indeed a tragic day for the NASA family, for the families of the astronauts who flew on STS-107, and likewise is tragic for the nation,” said O’Keefe.

“We have no indication that the mishap was caused by anything or anyone on the ground,” O’Keefe added.

In a briefing, Chief Flight Director Milt Heflin said that around 7:53 a.m. CST, just minutes before communications were lost with Columbia, flight controllers detected indications of a loss of hydraulic system temperature measurements associated with Columbia’s left wing, followed three minutes later by an increase in temperatures on the left main gear tires and brakes. At 7:58 a.m., flight controllers noted a loss of bondline temperature sensor data in the area of the left wing followed a minute later by a loss of data on tire temperatures and pressures for the left inboard and outboard tires.

After several attempts to try to contact Columbia, Cain declared a contingency, whereby flight controllers began preserving documentation regarding the entry phase of the flight. Recovery forces fanned out from Texas to Louisiana to try to recover debris that will be pertinent to the mishap investigation.

Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore said several teams have been organized to gather data for analysis and will report to an external investigation board that was appointed by Administrator O’Keefe. Dittemore added that no specific orbiter debris or crew remains have been positively identified at this time, and that there is no leading theory for the cause of the accident.

Dittemore said the processing of other shuttles at the Kennedy Space Center for future launches has been temporarily halted to enable engineers to review data regarding vehicle processing and to focus attention on capturing all pertinent information involving Columbia’s prelaunch preparations.

NASA managers will be meeting on a regular basis to begin reviewing data associated with Columbia’s investigation. The next status briefing from the Johnson Space Center is tentatively scheduled from the Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX at 12:00 p.m. CST Sunday. It will be seen on NASA Television with two-way question and answer capability for reporters from NASA centers.

NASA TV can be found on AMC-2, Transponder 9C, vertical polarization at 85 degrees West longitude, 3880 MHz, with audio at 6.8 MHz.

On the International Space Station, Expedition 6 Commander Ken Bowersox, Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin and NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit were informed of the loss of Columbia and its crew shortly after a Russian Progress resupply vehicle undocked from the ISS. Filled with discarded items no longer needed on the ISS, the Progress was commanded to deorbit by Russian flight controllers and reentered the Earth’s atmosphere.

A new Progress cargo ship will be launched Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:59 a.m. CST (1259 GMT) filled with supplies for the Expedition 6 crew. It is scheduled to dock to the ISS Tuesday morning. ISS program officials say, if necessary, the current resident crew could remain in orbit until late June with the supplies being ferried to the station on the new Progress.

Additional status reports will be issued as new information becomes available.

If i have not mistaken, i came across an article this morning in which a former NASA Safety official have wrote to US President Bush last year to warn a possible space disaster. in his letter, he also mentioned that a 2000 inpections of Columbia led to the founding of 3500 wiring defects!

WOW, that is bad. You would figure they would do something aobut that, especially since the Columbia was about 20 years old. Sometimes people amaze me with the way they see things, and look at htings, and then decide they are OK.

Apparently NASA has removed much of its concentration on the foam insulation causing the damage. They ran simulations with the foam hitting the wing at twice the velocity and don't believe that it would done significant damage even at that speed.

Now for a while I had been skeptical about that foam thing, I mean foam is pretty light. But I also didn't know how fast it was traveling when it hit. So I was waiting for something like this to shed some light on it.

About the wiring defects, I heard somethign about that too. I bet that at least some were taken care of. Anyone know when Columbia went up last prior to a couple weeks ago? I'm almost certain that they would have gone up at least once since those defects were found.

Originally posted by poertner_1274 WOW, that is bad. You would figure they would do something aobut that, especially since the Columbia was about 20 years old. Sometimes people amaze me with the way they see things, and look at htings, and then decide they are OK.

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The budget allocated for NASA in dealing with its space program is gettin smaller and smaller, as you can see politics also play a great role. As a result, reliability and quality safety degraded. Can't blame the US government tough, its pretty expensive to run the space program, they need a LOT of money, billions!

Are you sure the budget is decreasing in money numbers? I've heard conflicting reports, but the one I believe most is that the government just isn't giving more money each year, instead its staying the same. Which you can call a smaller budget because of inflation, the allocated money isn't going up with inflation.

It's true that the current shuttles are old, a new prototype is in development and should be comming out in the next 5 to 10 years.

Disaster is necessary for the development of safer space craft, either real or computer generated. This should persuade the government to increase the budget for NASA and improve the safety of Space Travel.